It Utters A Low
Note, Like The Clicking Together Of Two Small Stones.
A small
green parrot (Conurus murinus), with a grey breast, appears
to prefer the tall trees on the islands to any other
situation for its building-place.
A number of nests are
placed so close together as to form one great mass of sticks.
These parrots always live in flocks, and commit great ravages
on the corn-fields. I was told, that near Colonia 2500 were
killed in the course of one year. A bird with a forked tail,
terminated by two long feathers (Tyrannus savana), and
named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very common near
Buenos Ayres: it commonly sits on a branch of the _ombu_
tree, near a house, and thence takes a short flight in pursuit
of insects, and returns to the same spot. When on the wing
it presents in its manner of flight and general appearance
a caricature-likeness of the common swallow. It has the
power of turning very shortly in the air, and in so doing
opens and shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal or lateral
and sometimes in a vertical direction, just like a pair of
scissors.
October 16th. - Some leagues below Rozario, the western
shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs,
which extend in a long line to below San Nicolas; hence it
more resembles a sea-coast than that of a fresh-water river.
It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that,
from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy.
The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much
clearer; and where the two channels unite at the head of
the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distinguished
by their black and red colours.
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